User reviews

The biggest surprise of the Cannes film festival this year was probably that the Prix du Jury went to a film about a donkey. Not just that a donkey played a big role in the film, but the donkey was the protagonist of the film, and genuinely played by a donkey.

Surprisingly enough, that works. It might sound crazy at first to watch a film which follows throughout the entire runtime a donkey which can't speak or really express his feelings, but it actually works. That's due to the fantastic work of the team behind the film. Much of the success is due to director Jerzy Skolimowski, who seemed to know exactly what he was doing and how he wanted the film to look in the end. But he wouldn't have succeeded in making an interesting film about a donkey if it wasn't for his DoP Michal Dymek and his film editor Agniezka Glinska. Their collaboration results in giving the donkey a character, and making us believe that EO is actually played by a fantastic actor. There were a few moments throughout the film where I actually thought that this donkey should get an Oscar. Of course I was always fully aware that a donkey can't act, and that this is only technical expertise. Film editor Glinska used for example one of the oldest montage techniques of the history of film, the Kuleshov effect, which proved that editing is the key to every film, and that the audience can actually interprete the actor's feelings rather by the following shot than by his expressions. When Kuleshov tested the effect, he edited a (never-changing) close-up of an expressionless man, together with three alternate ending shots: a dead child in a coffin, a bowl of soup, and a woman lying on a divan. Audiences interpreted the expression on the actor's face as sadness, hunger and lust, although it was always the same. This effect got reused by Hitchcock many times, especially in his masterpiece "Rear Window".

In EO, this effect is used many times: A shot of the donkey's eye followed by a shot of animals being mistreated, makes us believe the donkey is actually sad. Another shot of the donkey (who was probably only wondering why people are standing for weeks with a camera around him) followed by his circus "mother" returning to him makes us believe he is happy, and so on. Paired with incredibly impressive and beautiful images, EO actually turns out to be a very interesting and refreshing film, even amongst experimental cinema.

Nonetheless, you're watching a donkey for 80+ minutes. And after a while, you start to feel that. You're waiting for some kind of emotional conflict, some interesting dialogue, etc, - which the director then tries to include by introducing side characters. But those side characters don't work at all, as they only distract from the main story and leave the audience completely cold. Even a great actress like Isabelle Huppert can't save the film's triviality by smashing a few plates when talking to her gambling addict son (who brought the donkey home with him). Instead, her acting - and every other actor too - feels completely misplaced and exaggerated, which is also due to the fact that the donkey always moves on very quickly after having met new persons, so no actor has more screen time than just a couple of minutes.

Last but not least, the film also doesn't manage to entertain enough through the message alone. As to expect, the film speaks a lot about animal exploitation and mistreatment and ultimately advocates for animal rights, but the message is clear after a few minutes, and the ending of the film - which I won't spoil here - doesn't work either, which ridiculousness the message a little.

But after all, EO is an interesting experiment, which surprisingly works due to the fantastic technical aspects. The film's main flaws are in the screenplay (and of course also in the fact that the protagonist is a donkey), but luckily, the film runs only 86 minutes, so you can overlook these weaknesses and still enjoy watching it.

Eo is the tale of a small donkey of the same name who we initially see as a circus performer very lovingly cared for by his young female trainer Kasandra. The authorities come and remove all of the circus animals and what follows is Eo's odyssey. He encounters all kinds of people (good and evil), animals, conditions, perils and experiences a breadth of adventures far greater than he would have had he remained in the circus. We of course experience these adventures with him. Visually Eo is beautiful and interesting. I add interesting because the images do seem to contain in all of them an element of narrative to them. This is important as Eo cannot speak and the film is minimal in dialogue. It is through imagery and an assertive score that much of the story is told. Watching a film like this brings me an almost omnipresent low level of anxiety with it though, which is an underlying concern that something very bad might happen to this harmless, innocent and gentle beast at any moment. While he does witness such things along the way, for the most part he is not a victim of but an observer of such things. I found the many different people Eo meets along the way interesting, like characters in a road movie. For me they worked. And for me Eo as a whole worked as well. Films of this type, regardless of how well they are done, seldom seem to appeal to the bulk of viewers out there (please note-this is not a Disney type film where the animals talk). For anyone else who is curious I recommend checking out Eo, ideally at the theater/cinema to fully appreciate.

IO stayed with me for days. This film is experienced and digested in the flesh. There are not many words in it so it is impossible to distance yourself from it by intellectualizing it. The places where animals live; the situations that happen to them - nothing we didn't know about - but shown from a different perspective - perspective of a donkey, a creature that is dependent on humans: it's owners (caretakers?) and the laws regarding animals.

I was touched and moved by something I had hitherto passed by indifferently: the fate of animals that are not given names. This film was difficult for me and appealed to me at the same time.

And last but not least I'm always very happy to see Isabelle Huppert on the screen.

The film tells a story of the world, which is shown through the eyes of a donkey. It is worth admitting that the film is very strong and affecting. Although, there is almost no talking in the film, but everything is still clear. The whole mood is created by visual effects, sound effects and, of course, donkey emotions.

In this film, the most important thing is the donkey and his experiences, emotions like sadness and fear. In fact, the strength of this film is the emotional background, which does not require any dialogues or monologues, and is focused on the world of the animal and the world around.

Unfortunately, after watching the movie, you get the feeling that in reality, sometimes a person can act like an animal and not have any humanity in him, and the animal has not done anything bad to this world, but it is treated cruelly. The film is very impactful and stays in the mind for a very long time.

The circus was your home but now it's closing, new outcomes are ahead, life's recomposing, a journey has begun, there'll be sorrow and some fun, lots of being led around and often roaming. You'll take the opportunities, that you're presented (you don't have a choice), and quite often you will feel, like you're resented, poorly treated by humans, but not always, some are friends, though they'll always seem to be, distressed, tormented.

The life of a donkey, the people it encounters, for good or bad, and the array of farms, fields, pens, containers, sanctuaries and otherwise that are used to restrict it, often quite unsuccessfully, as it's pushed from pillar to post - just as most animals are on their journey to the abattoir or slaughterhouse, does it remind you of anyone you know?

Breathtaking film. It's so refreshing to see a film like this in 2022. It feels like stuff like this was only produced in the 70's. It never could have happened in modern America. Not a chance. Poland gets big points for this one. Director Jerzy Skolimowski is a bit of a mad man (The Shout is one of the strangest movies I have ever seen).

Eo is a visual feast. Beautiful cinematography that generally stays in the realm of reality but also offers fits of surrealist wonder. The music score is beautifully tragic and tremendous. The sound editing is colossal. And, the legend Isabelle Huppert looks even better now than she did 21 years ago in The Piano Teacher.

You'll barely notice the lack of dialogue because you will be so immersed in Eo's story. It often feels meditative, which is extra intriguing and impressive considering that most of the time Eo is...not in a good place. It makes you wonder...is this what it actually feels like to be a farm animal? Sad but strangely sedated, unfittingly content?

Though Eo never moved me to tears, it is a very sentimental movie. The comedy is minimal but the moments it does have are very memorable. Whenever a human comes around, you can be sure something imbecilic or terrible is going to happen! Towards the end, it almost started reminded me of something like The Painted Bird, just focused on a donkey rather than a young boy, but it never gets even close to as hardcore as that story.

And then, finally, there's the most blatant accomplishment - they actually managed to make a highly entertaining movie about the life of a donkey in 2022. How did they even do it?! Where did they find the inspiration?! Amazing. I definitely recommend this! A highly respectable feat!

If you are looking for a story in a movie this is probably not for you. This one is a piece of art though. Have you ever wondered what would a donkey do if you let it loose? This movie tries to answer that very question. You follow EO (pronounce it so that it sounds like a donkey), taken from a Polish circus because of bankruptcy, he gets away multiple times and ends up in Italy. He falls on the worst of the human race as well as good people. Any short story that starts during his journey never gets a resolution because he just leaves for other things. It is a bit frustrating at times, but you are here to follow EO, no-one else. The imagery is beautiful, and the music on top is just awesome. An underrated movie that you should see if you love art more than cinema.

Inspired by Bresson's 1966 Au Hasard du Balthazar, EO is a very worthwhile contemporary revision of an innocent animal's experience of the human condition. Our folly, our greed, our anger and violence, our hypocrisy, our hubris ... and many more vices, but occasionally moments of redeeming compassion. When human beings were hunter gatherers we were much closer to the behaviour of animals, and coexisted in an ecologically natural state. Well deserved Palme D'Ors for both the music and the movie. Excellent photography and sequencing too. This film takes us on an inexorable journey involving a gamut of emotions. See it at a cinema for the best experience.

First of all, I have to say that I watched that movie in the cinema and it was a really nice experience. Well, the plot of the movie was kinda interesting and I decided to give a chance to that movie, so I watched it. The storyline was very well written, so clever, artistic and super realistic. The characters of the movie were too many and they were all kinda well-developed. The acting was amazing, award worthy. Of course, there were some unexplained parts during the movie. Overall, it was a kinda depressing film and the whole vibe of the movie was kinda sad. The ending scene of the movie was kinda unexpected and really intense. Actually, the whole movie was really intense and everything was portrayed correctly. Last but not least, the soundtrack of the movie was really good and kinda emotional.

Who would have thought that a film about an adorable donkey on an adventure wandering across Eastern Europe would capture the attention of the movie world? The concept itself seems like a stretch. And, unfortunately, after screening this picture, it seems like a stretch in practice, too. When EO, a performer in a circus company, is confiscated from his troupe in response to the contentions of animal rights activists who claim he's being tortured in that role, the independently minded creature finds a series of new owners as he meanders throughout the Polish landscape. In a number of respects, this delightfully quirky offering has more than its share of touching humorous moments as the beast makes a fool out of his human companions. But, as this story wears on, its narrative becomes somewhat implausible (and even a downright downer at times) as EO encounters his share of increasingly strange characters and situations, such as a story thread involving acclaimed actress Isabelle Huppert that's weirdly cryptic even by her standards these days. To its credit, the film's often-gorgeous cinematography is indeed a sight to behold, but even that's undermined by some truly strange, seemingly unrelated imagery, much of it again photographed beautifully but in ways that puzzle viewers about its intended purpose. Writer-director Jerzy Skolimowski's latest truly has its commendably inventive moments, but the overall production just doesn't hold together as well as it might have, its many inexplicable tangents often feeling as if they're coming from way out of left field. Consequently, it makes me wonder why this release has been showered with so many awards season accolades, including an Oscar nomination for best international film, an honor that seems like as much of a stretch as this picture's basic premise. A few passing moments of cuteness and modest laughs don't seem like enough to make this one of the year's allegedly stellar offerings.

It's been a while since I saw a film that moved me as much as E. O. An exceptional work of cinematic art that explores raw human emotion as lived through the heart and mind of a donkey.

With limited dialogue and unlimited creative compositions of light & movement, reminiscent of dream sequences strewn together in beautiful montages, E. O. is spell binding to say the least.

The irony of life... What leads us from one thing to another? Sometimes destiny, sometimes chance. If we are lucky we get to choose our own path. E. O.'s journey is our own journey.

Thank you for this beautiful experience. And as with life, I didn't want it to end.

It's very difficult to make a live action drama with a donkey for a protagonist and not have your film compared to Au Hasard Balthazar. Indeed, the words "donkey" and "cinema" cannot be used in the same sentence without one (a cineaste, anyway) thinking "Bresson". Inevitable, then, that EO, Jerzy Skolimowski's new donkey epic, would be considered in relation to the classic French film. The truth, though, is that they are completely different works that show just how different two European dramas about donkeys can be.

One of the many great things about Bresson's film is that it uses the titular critter's non-humanness as such. All we know of Balthazar's existence is what the performer-donkey is able to express on its own. We can tell that they are hungry because we see them eating. We can tell that they are in pain when they cry out, or that they are tired when they lie down. This, Bresson is telling us, is all we need to know. One might say that Bresson, especially in his latter films, treated his human performers in much the same way. They use speech because these are sounds humans make. But we can't, the filmmakers will not, psychologize any of the living beings on screen. They all live and that is enough.

EO is a vastly different, um, animal. It's also a much more conventional one. This donkey is very psychologized. While it doesn't speak, it feels almost like a talking animal out of a Disney movie. We know by way of editing that Eo longs for certain things, has certain cherished memories, even experiences awe. Then again, there's nothing inherently wrong with anthropomorphizing animals for the sake of art. EO might be closer to Bambi than to Balthazar, but does not Bambi have its own kind of power?

EO, unlike the classic French film, is a road movie. In a way it's as much about the places and people that Eo encounters as it is about the donkey. This is a portrait of a contemporary Europe that Skolimowski clearly finds absurd. The tone of the movie reminded me of the irreverence of the Czech New Wave more than anything I've seen from Polish cinema.

This Europe might seem absurd but it looks pretty great in Michal Dymek's mostly impressive, occasionally overwrought cinematography. The film would be unthinkable without Pawel Mykietyn's score. There is, predictably, not much dialog, and the music here is as important as is the accompaniment to a silent film. But the musicality of the work is another way it completely distinguishes itself from Bresson's movie, which revels in silence. We need the music to tell us what Eo is feeling, and thus what we should feel as well.

I really enjoyed the animals, the donkey(s) is cute and funny even when it's standing still. I would disagree that it was a great performance though, the animal is quite expressionless, but it's really cute and you quickly root for him.

The cinematography is definitely the strongest point of the movie, as a photographer I really enjoyed the composition of many of the frames throughout the film, and the shallow depth of field on the donkey's close ups gives a very enjoyable cense of closeness to the animal.

Following the donkey's journey through Polish lands though could have been more interesting if there was a better, more solid chain of events on the script. It was really confusing to see the donkey kind of teleporting from place to place and the story introducing and abandoning characters who don't always interact or affect the animal we're rooting for. Not even for the sake of the animal being a mere witness on the land, it didn't really work for me in that way.

There was a lot of randomness in the footage, probably trying to say things, show what the donkey's thinking, but not always made sense to me.

What I really disliked was the ending. I think it's absolutely unnecessary and if the point of it is what I think it is, it's really cheap. I don't want to spoil anything, just to point that I think the movie would be better with a different ending.

The story of EO, a donkey who bounces around from place to place after being freed from a circus situation early on. Ironically, the circus wasn't so bad for him, as he was truly loved by the performer in his act, and while he comes across kindness afterwards, he also comes across cruelty. The little human dramas that get weaved into the story because of the donkey's path in life may seem a tad haphazard, but in seeing how flawed people can be, and then to see the fate of EO (and all animals) completely subject to their whims, is powerful. However, there were times I felt Jerzy Skolimowski got a little too keen on the tight shots and visual effects, to the detriment of the narrative. Still, there is great empathy for animals here - the fact that they feel emotion, and the unfairness of their condition, and the immorality of factory farming all come through, which is admirable.

This nominee for Best International Film Oscar is a look at how humanity treats animals by using the perspective of the animal. In this case, Eo is both a work and a star donkey of a bankrupt touring circus that gets shut down. His true love is his co-star in his part of the show, Kassandra. When the authorities shut down the financially-strained circus, he is part of the confiscation, causing him to be torn away from Kassandra, upsetting him greatly. He escapes to go on a trek to find her. The movie focuses on him and his travails. I thought the perspective was refreshing, but it comes with a caveat that one experiences as the film progresses. I could not help getting caught up in the emotionalism that this displayed. I saw this a week ago and can not get it out of my head.

"Eo" is a donkey. Rescued from an harsh life in a circus by legislation from the Polish government, this film follows it's adventures as it is relocated to an equestrian centre - where it is lonely and causes a little bit of havoc; then a donkey sanctuary from which it escapes after a brief visit from former circus friend "Cassandra" (Sandra Drzymalska), before several other curious escapades befall it on travels that seem to encompass the length and breadth of the country. Told from the perspective of the donkey (though not through it's eyes) we see all that it might see - and humanity, warts and all, doesn't tend to come off so well! We see kindness and sympathy, but also brutality and thuggishness, too, and at times this is a frank and graphically horrible film to watch without squirming. Director Jerzy Skolimowski lets us see just how varied (and frequently ghastly) human behaviour can be, but he doesn't make judgements - he uses "Eo" as a benign - sympathy inducing - carrier of his message and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions. I did struggle with the end, and at times the narrative continuity stretched the imagination a little (especially with the wolves and towards the ending) but this is still a quirkily engaging and thought-provoking story not just about an animal - and of how human beings treat them in general - but one of how human beings treat their own species too. Beware the flickering lighting is probably not for those sensitive to such things, and I found it heavily over-scored at times, but I did appreciate it and would recommend it if you've a spare ninety minutes to take a different view on life!

EO is a thrillingly surreal odyssey that shows the best and worst of mankind in unpredictable fashion whilst always emphasising the beauty of nature. There's so many genuine moments of warmth which only make the darker moments all the more devastating. It's such a unique experience.

The several Donkeys that play EO give a phenomenal performance. The amount of emotion in their eyes is unrivalled and the cries of anguish are equally powerful. EO is supported by some great performances from Sandra Dryzmalska, Isabelle Hupert and Lorenzo Zurzolo in particular.

Jerzy Skolimowski crafts a real technical marvel. Along with Michal Dymek's varied cinematography it swaps between some top tier drone shots, a gorgeous use of colour (especially red) and plenty of Donkey's-eye view shots. Pawel Mykietyn's score adds further beauty to the gorgeous imagery.

The donkey is wonderful, some of the visuals are really great and stay with me but some parts are surprisingly conventional. At some point you really start to enter the mind of the protagonist, the donkey that is. The most impressive for me was the soundtrack, not just excellent music but a soundscape and being a fan of Gamelan this really got me. Nice surprise to see Isabelle Huppert in a small role. But not for this, not for the story, not for the filming but for the sound and some visually outstanding moments I would see it again.

Attention: This is not a film you can see with your children, expect some graphic content.

I went to see "EO" at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. To get there, I had to navigate loop traffic at 2:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon, right when the theater matinees were starting. I was stuck in gridlock trying to wait for space in a parking garage, and I finally decided to keep driving a few blocks away from the theater and park somewhere else.

Walking from the garage to the theater, I passed a line about three blocks long of people waiting to get into a winter market where they could be mashed into a crowd of people waiting to buy cheap crap at exorbitant prices, because the people running it know that tourists will spend any amount of money and subject themselves to any amount of inconvenience to do convince themselves that they enjoy holiday "festivities" like that.

Next, I sat through a movie which was all about the absurdity, and often cruelty, of humans as witnessed from the perspective of a donkey. It made me feel terrible about people in general. Even when we're not being awful, we spend our time doing stupid and pointless things, following rules that mankind has imposed on the world rather than trying to live with the world as it wants to be.

When I got back to my car, I was stunned to find that the garage I parked in charged me $57 for two hours of parking. I was so angry I actually exclaimed out loud, and then kicked myself for not using SpotHero like I had originally intended. Then it was more gridlock as I drove out of downtown and on to Lakeshore Drive. My afternoon out pursuing one of my favorite hobbies had been nothing but an aggravating headache from beginning to end because of the crush of humanity I had to wrestle through to do it. And as I sat waiting for someone to let me in, I began thinking about how the world I was at that moment experiencing looked a lot like the world shown in "EO," and it was utterly depressing.

So is this movie well made? I guess so, in that it made me feel what I think it wanted me to feel. Did I enjoy this movie? No I didn't, though I'm guessing the filmmakers weren't trying to make a movie people would enjoy. Would I ever want to watch this again? Guess.

Grade: B.

I was encouraged to see this film by an admiring, enthusiastic film review. Therefore I was quite positive. What then came over me in tangled, confusing and often badly constructed scenes, is something of the worst I have seen in the cinema in a long time.

Although described in this way, the film is by no means portrayed from the donkey's point of view. The scenes shot in red and black seemed completely incomprehensible to me and didn't make any sense. The dubbing with the animal sounds is embarrassingly fake, exaggerated and sloppy. The human protagonists were almost without exception highly unsympathetic and for the most part even real pukes. The soundtrack cuts into the brain like a buzz saw. I found scenes with other animals obnoxiously cruel.

What could one find pleasing or convincing in such a movie? Personally, I found the film repulsive, depressing and questionable. Now I am busy trying to forget it as quickly as possible.

Category: overrated crap movie.